How to talk to Industry
From Self-Organization Wiki
How to make contacts?
Main idea: Select companies necessary for the project, identify and exploit interests
- Use existing networks with companies
- Networking events (like ICT proposer’s days), Workshops/Exhibitions
- Asking companies for open problems / challenges ?
- Are companies willing to tell you?
- Become visible
- Conferences with industry participation
- Webpage
- Be present also in non-scientific media (TV, newspaper)
- Show your research and work in the media (we may then get contacted)
- Sit and wait: Companies knows about group work in some way
- Important issues
- Concrete vision about what to give/what is required
- Size of the company does matter: SME, big companies
- Location of the company does matter: important for sustainable cooperation
- It is a long process to approach and concretize results with industry contacts
- Informally at conference, from network events, from personal contacts
- Social networking
- Join local IEEE chapters, Informatics societies
- Have a beer ..
- Think about who to approach, it is a lot of effort to maintain the relationship
How to motivate a partnership?
- Improving their products
- Testing some novel approaches
- Use and apply their products – new applications (“killer application”)
- Benefits of funding itself ( getting money ;-) )
- Contacts to future personnel
- Joint publications (?)
- Free advertisement / being in the media (?)
- Build up trust via small projects
- Show maturity of your work
- Give away master thesis students to company?
- Give company ~6 months planning time for a joint project
- Show there is a benefit:
- Financial
- Standing: how to help your partner in the company improve his own standing, his own department inside his organisation
How to communicate with industry partners?
- Different ways to approach partners providing:
- Products, services
- Personnel/knowledge
- Governmental-near with social interest
- “Sell” the vision and explain potential outcome
- Have to identify value for them – possible outcome (profit)
- Be aware of IPRs and “strategic secrets”
- Data sets they don’t want to share
- Classified, crucial information for their business
- Privacy concerns
- Be yourself
- Show abilities / R&D profile
- Refer to successful projects/cooperations
- Present best practise / working devices
- Empower the communication partner to make decisions
- Find „happy medium“ for level of abstraction